- hledger
- NAME
- SYNOPSIS
- DESCRIPTION
- EXAMPLES
- OPTIONS
-p "2009/1/1 2009/4/1"``-p2009/1/1to2009/4/1``-p2009/1/1-2009/4/1
-p "1/1 4/1"``-p "january-apr"``-p "this year to 4/1"
-p "weekly from 2009/1/1 to 2009/4/1"``-p "monthly in 2008"``-p "quarterly"
-p "bimonthly from 2008"``-p "every 2 weeks"``-p "every 5 days from 1/3"
- QUERIES
- COMMANDS
- ADD-ON COMMANDS
- TROUBLESHOOTING
- ENVIRONMENT
- FILES
- BUGS
hledger
This doc is for version 1.0.
NAME
hledger - a command-line accounting tool
SYNOPSIS
hledger [-f FILE] COMMAND [OPTIONS] [CMDARGS]
hledger [-f FILE] ADDONCMD -- [OPTIONS] [CMDARGS]
DESCRIPTION
hledger is a cross-platform program for tracking money, time, or any
other commodity, using double-entry accounting and a simple, editable
file format. hledger is inspired by and largely compatible with
ledger(1).
Tested on unix, mac, windows, hledger aims to be a reliable, practical
tool for daily use.
This is hledger’s command-line interface (there are also curses and web interfaces). Its basic function is to read a plain text file describing financial transactions (in accounting terms, a general journal) and print useful reports on standard output, or export them as CSV. hledger can also read some other file formats such as CSV files, translating them to journal format. Additionally, hledger lists other hledger-* executables found in the user’s $PATH and can invoke them as subcommands.
hledger reads data from one or more files in hledger journal, timeclock,
timedot, or CSV format specified with -f
, or $LEDGER_FILE
, or
$HOME/.hledger.journal
(on windows, perhaps
C:/Users/USER/.hledger.journal
). If using $LEDGER_FILE
, note this
must be a real environment variable, not a shell variable. You can
specify standard input with -f-
.
Transactions are dated movements of money between two (or more) named accounts, and are recorded with journal entries like this:
2015/10/16 bought food
expenses:food $10
assets:cash
For more about this format, see hledger_journal(5).
Most users use a text editor to edit the journal, usually with an editor mode such as ledger-mode for added convenience. hledger’s interactive add command is another way to record new transactions. hledger never changes existing transactions.
To get started, you can either save some entries like the above in
~/.hledger.journal
, or run hledger add
and follow the prompts. Then
try some commands like hledger print
or hledger balance
. See
COMMANDS and EXAMPLES below.
EXAMPLES
Two simple transactions in hledger journal format:
2015/9/30 gift received
assets:cash $20
income:gifts
2015/10/16 farmers market
expenses:food $10
assets:cash
Some basic reports:
$ hledger print
2015/09/30 gift received
assets:cash $20
income:gifts $-20
2015/10/16 farmers market
expenses:food $10
assets:cash $-10
$ hledger accounts --tree
assets
cash
expenses
food
income
gifts
$ hledger balance
$10 assets:cash
$10 expenses:food
$-20 income:gifts
--------------------
0
$ hledger register cash
2015/09/30 gift received assets:cash $20 $20
2015/10/16 farmers market assets:cash $-10 $10
More commands:
$ hledger # show available commands
$ hledger add # add more transactions to the journal file
$ hledger balance # all accounts with aggregated balances
$ hledger balance --help # show detailed help for balance command
$ hledger balance --depth 1 # only top-level accounts
$ hledger register # show account postings, with running total
$ hledger reg income # show postings to/from income accounts
$ hledger reg 'assets:some bank:checking' # show postings to/from this checking account
$ hledger print desc:shop # show transactions with shop in the description
$ hledger activity -W # show transaction counts per week as a bar chart
With the journal
2016/02/16 Member Fee Payment John Doe
assets:bank account 2 EUR
income:member fees -2 EUR
; member: John Doe
the --pivot comand will output the following:
$ hledger bal --pivot member
2 EUR assets:bank account
-2 EUR member:John Doe
OPTIONS
To see general usage and the command list: hledger -h
or just
hledger
. To see usage for a specific command: hledger COMMAND -h
.
hledger has several kinds of options:
-
General options are always available and can appear anywhere on the command line.
hledger -h
shows these. Eg:hledger --version
. -
Common reporting options are available with most commands. These and all other non-general options must be written after COMMAND.
hledger COMMAND -h
shows these. Eg:hledger register --cleared
. -
Command-specific options are also provided by some commands.
hledger COMMAND -h
shows these too. Eg:hledger register --average
. -
Some hledger commands come from separate add-on executables, which have their own options.
hledger COMMAND -h
shows these, as usual. Such options, if not also supported by hledger, should be written following a double hyphen argument (--
) so that hledger's option parser does not complain. Eg:hledger ui -- --register=checking
. Or, you can just run the add-on directly:hledger-ui --register=checking
.
Command arguments may also follow the command name. In most cases these specify a query which filters the data. Command options and arguments can be intermixed.
Option and argument values containing problematic characters should be
escaped with double quotes, backslashes, or (best) single quotes. This
means spaces, but also characters which are significant to your command
shell, such as less-than/greater-than. Eg:
hledger register -p 'last year' "accounts receivable (receivable|payable)" amt:\>100
.
Characters which are significant to the shell and also in regular
expressions, like parentheses, the pipe symbol
and the dollar sign, must sometimes be double-escaped. Eg, to match the
dollar symbol: hledger balance cur:'\$'
or hledger balance cur:\\$
.
There's more.. options and arguments being passed by hledger to an
add-on executable get de-escaped once in the process. In this case you
might need triple-escaping. Eg: hledger ui cur:'\\$'
or
hledger ui cur:\\\\$
.
If in doubt, keep things simple:
- write options after the command
- enclose problematic args in single quotes
- if needed, also add a backslash to escape regexp metacharacters
- run add-on executables directly
If you're really curious, add --debug=2
for troubleshooting.
General options:
-h
: show general usage (or after COMMAND, the command's usage)
--help
: show the current program's manual as plain text (or after an add-on
COMMAND, the add-on's manual)
--man
: show the current program's manual with man
--info
: show the current program's manual with info
--version
: show version
--debug[=N]
: show debug output (levels 1-9, default: 1)
-f FILE --file=FILE
: use a different input file. For stdin, use -
--rules-file=RULESFILE
: Conversion rules file to use when reading CSV (default: FILE.rules)
--alias=OLD=NEW
: display accounts named OLD as NEW
-I --ignore-assertions
: ignore any failing balance assertions in the journal
Common reporting options:
-b --begin=DATE
: include postings/txns on or after this date
-e --end=DATE
: include postings/txns before this date
-D --daily
: multiperiod/multicolumn report by day
-W --weekly
: multiperiod/multicolumn report by week
-M --monthly
: multiperiod/multicolumn report by month
-Q --quarterly
: multiperiod/multicolumn report by quarter
-Y --yearly
: multiperiod/multicolumn report by year
-p --period=PERIODEXP
: set start date, end date, and/or reporting interval all at once
(overrides the flags above)
--date2
: show, and match with -b/-e/-p/date:, secondary dates instead
-C --cleared
: include only cleared postings/txns
--pending
: include only pending postings/txns
-U --uncleared
: include only uncleared (and pending) postings/txns
-R --real
: include only non-virtual postings
--depth=N
: hide accounts/postings deeper than N
-E --empty
: show items with zero amount, normally hidden
-B --cost
: convert amounts to their cost at transaction time (using the
transaction price, if any)
--pivot TAG
: will transform the journal before any other processing by replacing
the account name of every posting having the tag TAG with content
VALUE by the account name "TAG:VALUE". The TAG will only match if it
is a full-length match. The pivot will only happen if the TAG is on
a posting, not if it is on the transaction. If the tag value is a
multi:level:account:name the new account name will
be "TAG:multi:level:account:name".
--anon
: show anonymized accounts and payees
Multiple files
You can specify multiple -f/--file FILE
options. This is like
combining all the files into one, except they can have different
formats. Also directives and aliases in one file do not affect
subsequent files (if you need that, use the include
directive instead).
Repeated options
Otherwise, if a reporting option is repeated, the last one takes precedence. Eg -p jan -p feb is equivalent to -p feb.
Depth limiting
With the --depth N
option, commands like account,
balance and register will show only the
uppermost accounts in the account tree, down to level N. Use this when
you want a summary with less detail.
Smart dates
hledger's user interfaces accept a flexible "smart date" syntax (unlike dates in the journal file). Smart dates allow some english words, can be relative to today's date, and can have less-significant date parts omitted (defaulting to 1).
Examples:
2009/1/1
, 2009/01/01
, 2009-1-1
, 2009.1.1
simple dates, several separators allowed
2009/1
, 2009
same as above - a missing day or month defaults to 1
1/1
, january
, jan
, this year
relative dates, meaning january 1 of the current year
next year
january 1 of next year
this month
the 1st of the current month
this week
the most recent monday
last week
the monday of the week before this one
lastweek
spaces are optional
today
, yesterday
, tomorrow
Report intervals
A report interval can be specified so that commands like
register, balance and activity
will divide their reports into multiple subperiods. The basic intervals
can be selected with one of -D/--daily
, -W/--weekly
, -M/--monthly
,
-Q/--quarterly
, or -Y/--yearly
. More complex intervals may be
specified with a period expression.
Period expressions
The -p/--period
option accepts period expressions, a shorthand way of
expressing a start date, end date, and/or report interval all at once.
Here's a basic period expression specifying the first quarter of 2009. Note, hledger always treats start dates as inclusive and end dates as exclusive:
-p "from 2009/1/1 to 2009/4/1"
Keywords like "from" and "to" are optional, and so are the spaces, as long as you don't run two dates together. "to" can also be written as "-". These are equivalent to the above:
-p "2009/1/1 2009/4/1"
-p2009/1/1to2009/4/1
-p2009/1/1-2009/4/1
Dates are smart dates, so if the current year is 2009, the above can also be written as:
-p "1/1 4/1"
-p "january-apr"
-p "this year to 4/1"
If you specify only one date, the missing start or end date will be the earliest or latest transaction in your journal:
-p "from 2009/1/1"
everything after january 1, 2009
-p "from 2009/1"
the same
-p "from 2009"
the same
-p "to 2009"
everything before january 1, 2009
A single date with no "from" or "to" defines both the start and end date like so:
-p "2009"
the year 2009; equivalent to "2009/1/1 to 2010/1/1"
-p "2009/1"
the month of jan; equivalent to "2009/1/1 to 2009/2/1"
-p "2009/1/1"
just that day; equivalent to "2009/1/1 to 2009/1/2"
The argument of -p
can also begin with, or be, a report
interval expression. The basic report intervals are
daily
, weekly
, monthly
, quarterly
, or yearly
, which have the
same effect as the -D
,-W
,-M
,-Q
, or -Y
flags. Between report
interval and start/end dates (if any), the word in
is optional.
Examples:
-p "weekly from 2009/1/1 to 2009/4/1"
-p "monthly in 2008"
-p "quarterly"
The following more complex report intervals are also supported:
biweekly
, bimonthly
, every N days|weeks|months|quarters|years
,
every Nth day [of month]
, every Nth day of week
.
Examples:
-p "bimonthly from 2008"
-p "every 2 weeks"
-p "every 5 days from 1/3"
Show historical balances at end of 15th each month (N is exclusive end date):
hledger balance -H -p "every 16th day"
Group postings from start of wednesday to end of next tuesday (N is start date and exclusive end date):
hledger register checking -p "every 3rd day of week"
Regular expressions
hledger uses regular expressions in a number of places:
- query terms, on the command line and in the hledger-web
search form:
REGEX
,desc:REGEX
,cur:REGEX
,tag:...=REGEX
- CSV rules conditional blocks:
if REGEX ...
- account alias directives and options:
alias /REGEX/ = REPLACEMENT
,--alias /REGEX/=REPLACEMENT
hledger's regular expressions come from the regex-tdfa library. In general they:
- are case insensitive
- are infix matching (do not need to match the entire thing being matched)
- are POSIX extended regular expressions
- also support GNU word boundaries (\<, \>, \b, \B)
- and parenthesised capturing groups and numeric backreferences in replacement strings
- do not support mode modifiers like (?s)
Some things to note:
-
In the
alias
directive and--alias
option, regular expressions must be enclosed in forward slashes (/REGEX/
). Elsewhere in hledger, these are not required. -
To match a regular expression metacharacter like
$
as a literal character, prepend a backslash. Eg to search for amounts with the dollar sign in hledger-web, writecur:\$
. -
On the command line, some metacharacters like
$
have a special meaning to the shell and so must be escaped a second time, with single or double quotes or another backslash. Eg, to match amounts with the dollar sign from the command line, writecur:'\$'
orcur:\\$
.
QUERIES
One of hledger's strengths is being able to quickly report on precise subsets of your data. Most commands accept an optional query expression, written as arguments after the command name, to filter the data by date, account name or other criteria. The syntax is similar to a web search: one or more space-separated search terms, quotes to enclose whitespace, optional prefixes to match specific fields. Multiple search terms are combined as follows:
All commands except print: show transactions/postings/accounts which match (or negatively match)
- any of the description terms AND
- any of the account terms AND
- all the other terms.
The print command: show transactions which
- match any of the description terms AND
- have any postings matching any of the positive account terms AND
- have no postings matching any of the negative account terms AND
- match all the other terms.
The following kinds of search terms can be used:
REGEX
: match account names by this regular expression
acct:REGEX
: same as above
amt:N, amt:<N, amt:<=N, amt:>N, amt:>=N
: match postings with a single-commodity amount that is equal to, less
than, or greater than N. (Multi-commodity amounts are not tested,
and will always match.) The comparison has two modes: if N is
preceded by a + or - sign (or is 0), the two signed numbers
are compared. Otherwise, the absolute magnitudes are compared,
ignoring sign.
code:REGEX
: match by transaction code (eg check number)
cur:REGEX
: match postings or transactions including any amounts whose
currency/commodity symbol is fully matched by REGEX. (For a partial
match, use .*REGEX.*
). Note, to match characters which are
regex-significant, like the dollar sign ($
), you need to prepend
\
. And when using the command line you need to add one more level
of quoting to hide it from the shell, so eg do:
hledger print cur:'\$'
or hledger print cur:\\$
.
desc:REGEX
: match transaction descriptions
date:PERIODEXPR
: match dates within the specified period. PERIODEXPR is a period
expression (with no report interval).
Examples: date:2016
, date:thismonth
, date:2000/2/1-2/15
,
date:lastweek-
. If the --date2
command line flag is present,
this matches secondary dates instead.
date2:PERIODEXPR
: match secondary dates within the specified period.
depth:N
: match (or display, depending on command) accounts at or above this
depth
real:, real:0
: match real or virtual postings respectively
status:*, status:!, status:
: match cleared, pending, or uncleared/pending transactions
respectively
tag:REGEX[=REGEX]
: match by tag name, and optionally also by tag value. Note a tag:
query is considered to match a transaction if it matches any of
the postings. Also remember that postings inherit the tags of their
parent transaction.
not:
: before any of the above negates the match.
inacct:ACCTNAME
: a special term used automatically when you click an account name in
hledger-web, specifying the account register we are currently in
(selects the transactions of that account and how to show them, can
be filtered further with acct
etc). Not supported elsewhere
in hledger.
Some of these can also be expressed as command-line options (eg
depth:2
is equivalent to --depth 2
). Generally you can mix options
and query arguments, and the resulting query will be their intersection
(perhaps excluding the -p/--period
option).
COMMANDS
hledger provides a number of subcommands; hledger
with no arguments
shows a list.
If you install additional hledger-*
packages, or if you put programs
or scripts named hledger-NAME
in your PATH, these will also be listed
as subcommands.
Run a subcommand by writing its name as first argument (eg
hledger incomestatement
). You can also write any unambiguous prefix of
a command name (hledger inc
), or one of the standard short aliases
displayed in the command list (hledger is
).
accounts
Show account names.
--tree
: show short account names, as a tree
--flat
: show full account names, as a list (default)
--drop=N
: in flat mode: omit N leading account name parts
This command lists all account names that are in use (ie, all the accounts which have at least one transaction posting to them). With query arguments, only matched account names are shown.
It shows a flat list by default. With --tree
, it uses indentation to
show the account hierarchy.
In flat mode you can add --drop N
to omit the first few account name
components.
Examples:
$ hledger accounts --tree
assets
bank
checking
saving
cash
expenses
food
supplies
income
gifts
salary
liabilities
debts
$ hledger accounts --drop 1
bank:checking
bank:saving
cash
food
supplies
gifts
salary
debts
$ hledger accounts
assets:bank:checking
assets:bank:saving
assets:cash
expenses:food
expenses:supplies
income:gifts
income:salary
liabilities:debts
activity
Show an ascii barchart of posting counts per interval.
The activity command displays an ascii histogram showing transaction counts by day, week, month or other reporting interval (by day is the default). With query arguments, it counts only matched transactions.
$ hledger activity --quarterly
2008-01-01 **
2008-04-01 *******
2008-07-01
2008-10-01 **
add
Prompt for transactions and add them to the journal.
--no-new-accounts
: don't allow creating new accounts; helps prevent typos when entering
account names
Many hledger users edit their journals directly with a text editor, or
generate them from CSV. For more interactive data entry, there is the
add
command, which prompts interactively on the console for new
transactions, and appends them to the journal file (if there are
multiple -f FILE
options, the first file is used.) Existing
transactions are not changed. This is the only hledger command that
writes to the journal file.
To use it, just run hledger add
and follow the prompts. You can add as
many transactions as you like; when you are finished, enter .
or press
control-d or control-c to exit.
Features:
- add tries to provide useful defaults, using the most similar recent transaction (by description) as a template.
- You can also set the initial defaults with command line arguments.
- Readline-style edit keys can be used during data entry.
- The tab key will auto-complete whenever possible - accounts,
descriptions, dates (
yesterday
,today
,tomorrow
). If the input area is empty, it will insert the default value. - If the journal defines a default commodity, it will be added to any bare numbers entered.
- A parenthesised transaction code may be entered following a date.
- Comments and tags may be entered following a description or amount.
- If you make a mistake, enter
<
at any prompt to restart the transaction. - Input prompts are displayed in a different colour when the terminal supports it.
Example (see the tutorial for a detailed explanation):
$ hledger add
Adding transactions to journal file /src/hledger/data/sample.journal
Any command line arguments will be used as defaults.
Use tab key to complete, readline keys to edit, enter to accept defaults.
An optional (CODE) may follow transaction dates.
An optional ; COMMENT may follow descriptions or amounts.
If you make a mistake, enter < at any prompt to restart the transaction.
To end a transaction, enter . when prompted.
To quit, enter . at a date prompt or press control-d or control-c.
Date [2015/05/22]:
Description: supermarket
Account 1: expenses:food
Amount 1: $10
Account 2: assets:checking
Amount 2 [$-10.0]:
Account 3 (or . or enter to finish this transaction): .
2015/05/22 supermarket
expenses:food $10
assets:checking $-10.0
Save this transaction to the journal ? [y]:
Saved.
Starting the next transaction (. or ctrl-D/ctrl-C to quit)
Date [2015/05/22]: <CTRL-D> $
balance
Show accounts and their balances. Alias: bal.
--change
: show balance change in each period (default)
--cumulative
: show balance change accumulated across periods (in
multicolumn reports)
-H --historical
: show historical ending balance in each period (includes postings
before report start date)
--tree
: show accounts as a tree; amounts include subaccounts (default in
simple reports)
--flat
: show accounts as a list; amounts exclude subaccounts except when
account is depth-clipped (default in multicolumn reports)
-V --value
: convert amounts to current market value in their default valuation
commodity
-A --average
: show a row average column (in multicolumn mode)
-T --row-total
: show a row total column (in multicolumn mode)
-N --no-total
: don't show the final total row
--drop=N
: omit N leading account name parts (in flat mode)
--no-elide
: don't squash boring parent accounts (in tree mode)
--format=LINEFORMAT
: in single-column balance reports: use this custom line format
-O FMT --output-format=FMT
: select the output format. Supported formats: txt, csv.
-o FILE --output-file=FILE
: write output to FILE. A file extension matching one of the above
formats selects that format.
The balance command displays accounts and balances. It is hledger's most featureful and most useful command.
$ hledger balance
$-1 assets
$1 bank:saving
$-2 cash
$2 expenses
$1 food
$1 supplies
$-2 income
$-1 gifts
$-1 salary
$1 liabilities:debts
--------------------
0
More precisely, the balance command shows the change to each account's balance caused by all (matched) postings. In the common case where you do not filter by date and your journal sets the correct opening balances, this is the same as the account's ending balance.
By default, accounts are displayed hierarchically, with subaccounts
indented below their parent. "Boring" accounts, which contain a single
interesting subaccount and no balance of their own, are elided into the
following line for more compact output. (Use --no-elide
to prevent
this.)
Each account's balance is the "inclusive" balance - it includes the balances of any subaccounts.
Accounts which have zero balance (and no non-zero subaccounts) are
omitted. Use -E/--empty
to show them.
A final total is displayed by default; use -N/--no-total
to suppress
it:
$ hledger balance -p 2008/6 expenses --no-total
$2 expenses
$1 food
$1 supplies
Flat mode
To see a flat list of full account names instead of the default
hierarchical display, use --flat
. In this mode, accounts (unless
depth-clipped) show their "exclusive" balance, excluding any subaccount
balances. In this mode, you can also use --drop N
to omit the first
few account name components.
$ hledger balance -p 2008/6 expenses -N --flat --drop 1
$1 food
$1 supplies
Depth limited balance reports
With --depth N
, balance shows accounts only to the specified depth.
This is very useful to show a complex charts of accounts in less detail.
In flat mode, balances from accounts below the depth limit will be shown
as part of a parent account at the depth limit.
$ hledger balance -N --depth 1
$-1 assets
$2 expenses
$-2 income
$1 liabilities
Multicolumn balance reports
With a reporting interval, multiple balance columns will be shown, one for each report period. There are three types of multi-column balance report, showing different information:
-
By default: each column shows the sum of postings in that period, ie the account's change of balance in that period. This is useful eg for a monthly income statement: <!-- multi-column income statement:
$ hledger balance ^income ^expense -p 'monthly this year' --depth 3
or cashflow statement:
$ hledger balance ^assets ^liabilities 'not:(receivable|payable)' -p 'weekly this month' -->
$ hledger balance --quarterly income expenses -E Balance changes in 2008: || 2008q1 2008q2 2008q3 2008q4 ===================++================================= expenses:food || 0 $1 0 0 expenses:supplies || 0 $1 0 0 income:gifts || 0 $-1 0 0 income:salary || $-1 0 0 0 -------------------++--------------------------------- || $-1 $1 0 0
-
With
--cumulative
: each column shows the ending balance for that period, accumulating the changes across periods, starting from 0 at the report start date:$ hledger balance --quarterly income expenses -E --cumulative Ending balances (cumulative) in 2008: || 2008/03/31 2008/06/30 2008/09/30 2008/12/31 ===================++================================================= expenses:food || 0 $1 $1 $1 expenses:supplies || 0 $1 $1 $1 income:gifts || 0 $-1 $-1 $-1 income:salary || $-1 $-1 $-1 $-1 -------------------++------------------------------------------------- || $-1 0 0 0
-
With
--historical/-H
: each column shows the actual historical ending balance for that period, accumulating the changes across periods, starting from the actual balance at the report start date. This is useful eg for a multi-period balance sheet, and when you are showing only the data after a certain start date:$ hledger balance ^assets ^liabilities --quarterly --historical --begin 2008/4/1 Ending balances (historical) in 2008/04/01-2008/12/31: || 2008/06/30 2008/09/30 2008/12/31 ======================++===================================== assets:bank:checking || $1 $1 0 assets:bank:saving || $1 $1 $1 assets:cash || $-2 $-2 $-2 liabilities:debts || 0 0 $1 ----------------------++------------------------------------- || 0 0 0
Multi-column balance reports display accounts in flat mode by default;
to see the hierarchy, use --tree
.
With a reporting interval (like --quarterly
above), the report
start/end dates will be adjusted if necessary so that they encompass the
displayed report periods. This is so that the first and last periods
will be "full" and comparable to the others.
The -E/--empty
flag does two things in multicolumn balance reports:
first, the report will show all columns within the specified report
period (without -E, leading and trailing columns with all zeroes are not
shown). Second, all accounts which existed at the report start date will
be considered, not just the ones with activity during the report period
(use -E to include low-activity accounts which would otherwise would be
omitted).
The -T/--row-total
flag adds an additional column showing the total
for each row.
The -A/--average
flag adds a column showing the average value in each
row.
Here's an example of all three:
$ hledger balance -Q income expenses --tree -ETA
Balance changes in 2008:
|| 2008q1 2008q2 2008q3 2008q4 Total Average
============++===================================================
expenses || 0 $2 0 0 $2 $1
food || 0 $1 0 0 $1 0
supplies || 0 $1 0 0 $1 0
income || $-1 $-1 0 0 $-2 $-1
gifts || 0 $-1 0 0 $-1 0
salary || $-1 0 0 0 $-1 0
------------++---------------------------------------------------
|| $-1 $1 0 0 0 0
# Average is rounded to the dollar here since all journal amounts are
Market value
The -V/--value
flag converts all the reported amounts to their
"current market value" using their default market price. That is the
latest market price (P directive) found in the journal
(or an included file), for the amount's commodity, dated on or before
the report end date.
Unlike Ledger, hledger's -V only uses the market prices recorded with P directives, ignoring transaction prices recorded as part of posting amounts (which -B/--cost uses). Using -B and -V together is allowed.
Custom balance output
In simple (non-multi-column) balance reports, you can customise the
output with --format FMT
:
$ hledger balance --format "%20(account) %12(total)"
assets $-1
bank:saving $1
cash $-2
expenses $2
food $1
supplies $1
income $-2
gifts $-1
salary $-1
liabilities:debts $1
---------------------------------
0
The FMT format string (plus a newline) specifies the formatting applied to each account/balance pair. It may contain any suitable text, with data fields interpolated like so:
%[MIN][.MAX](FIELDNAME)
-
MIN pads with spaces to at least this width (optional)
-
MAX truncates at this width (optional)
-
FIELDNAME must be enclosed in parentheses, and can be one of:
depth_spacer
- a number of spaces equal to the account's depth, or if MIN is specified, MIN * depth spaces.account
- the account's nametotal
- the account's balance/posted total, right justified
Also, FMT can begin with an optional prefix to control how multi-commodity amounts are rendered:
%_
- render on multiple lines, bottom-aligned (the default)%^
- render on multiple lines, top-aligned%,
- render on one line, comma-separated
There are some quirks. Eg in one-line mode, %(depth_spacer)
has no
effect, instead %(account)
has indentation built in. Experimentation may be needed to get pleasing results.
Some example formats:
%(total)
- the account's total%-20.20(account)
- the account's name, left justified, padded to 20 characters and clipped at 20 characters%,%-50(account) %25(total)
- account name padded to 50 characters, total padded to 20 characters, with multiple commodities rendered on one line%20(total) %2(depth_spacer)%-(account)
- the default format for the single-column balance report
Output destination
The balance, print, register and stats commands can write their output
to a destination other than the console. This is controlled by the
-o/--output-file
option.
$ hledger balance -o - # write to stdout (the default)
$ hledger balance -o FILE # write to FILE
CSV output
The balance, print and register commands can write their output as CSV.
This is useful for exporting data to other applications, eg to make
charts in a spreadsheet. This is controlled by the -O/--output-format
option, or by specifying a .csv
file extension with
-o/--output-file
.
$ hledger balance -O csv # write CSV to stdout
$ hledger balance -o FILE.csv # write CSV to FILE.csv
balancesheet
Show a balance sheet. Alias: bs.
--flat
: show full account names, as a list (default)
--drop=N
: in flat mode: omit N leading account name parts
This command displays a simple balance
sheet. It currently assumes
that you have top-level accounts named asset
and liability
(plural
forms also allowed.)
$ hledger balancesheet
Balance Sheet
Assets:
$-1 assets
$1 bank:saving
$-2 cash
--------------------
$-1
Liabilities:
$1 liabilities:debts
--------------------
$1
Total:
--------------------
0
cashflow
Show a cashflow statement. Alias: cf.
--flat
: show full account names, as a list (default)
--drop=N
: in flat mode: omit N leading account name parts
This command displays a simple cashflow
statement It shows
the change in all "cash" (ie, liquid assets) accounts for the period. It
currently assumes that cash accounts are under a top-level account named
asset
and do not contain receivable
or A/R
(plural forms also
allowed.)
$ hledger cashflow
Cashflow Statement
Cash flows:
$-1 assets
$1 bank:saving
$-2 cash
--------------------
$-1
Total:
--------------------
$-1
help
Show any of the hledger manuals.
The help
command displays any of the main hledger man
pages. (Unlike hledger --help
, which displays only the
hledger man page.) Run it with no arguments to list available topics
(their names are shortened for easier typing), and run
hledger help TOPIC
to select one. The output is similar to a man page,
but fixed width. It may be long, so you may wish to pipe it into a
pager. See also info and man.
$ hledger help
Choose a topic, eg: hledger help cli
cli, ui, web, api, journal, csv, timeclock, timedot
$ hledger help cli | less
hledger(1) hledger User Manuals hledger(1)
NAME
hledger - a command-line accounting tool
SYNOPSIS
hledger [-f FILE] COMMAND [OPTIONS] [CMDARGS]
hledger [-f FILE] ADDONCMD -- [OPTIONS] [CMDARGS]
:
incomestatement
Show an income statement. Alias: is.
--flat
: show full account names, as a list (default)
--drop=N
: in flat mode: omit N leading account name parts
This command displays a simple income
statement. It currently
assumes that you have top-level accounts named income
(or revenue
)
and expense
(plural forms also allowed.)
$ hledger incomestatement
Income Statement
Revenues:
$-2 income
$-1 gifts
$-1 salary
--------------------
$-2
Expenses:
$2 expenses
$1 food
$1 supplies
--------------------
$2
Total:
--------------------
0
info
Show any of the hledger manuals using info.
The info
command displays any of the hledger reference
manuals using the
info hypertextual
documentation viewer. This can be a very efficient way to browse large
manuals. It requires the "info" program to be available in your PATH.
As with help, run it with no arguments to list available topics (manuals).
man
Show any of the hledger manuals using man.
The man
command displays any of the hledger reference
manuals using
man, the standard
documentation viewer on unix systems. This will fit the text to your
terminal width, and probably invoke a pager automatically. It requires
the "man" program to be available in your PATH.
As with help, run it with no arguments to list available topics (manuals).
Show transactions from the journal.
-m STR --match=STR
: show the transaction whose description is most similar to STR, and
is most recent
-O FMT --output-format=FMT
: select the output format. Supported formats: txt, csv.
-o FILE --output-file=FILE
: write output to FILE. A file extension matching one of the above
formats selects that format.
$ hledger print
2008/01/01 income
assets:bank:checking $1
income:salary $-1
2008/06/01 gift
assets:bank:checking $1
income:gifts $-1
2008/06/02 save
assets:bank:saving $1
assets:bank:checking $-1
2008/06/03 * eat & shop
expenses:food $1
expenses:supplies $1
assets:cash $-2
2008/12/31 * pay off
liabilities:debts $1
assets:bank:checking $-1
The print command displays full transactions from the journal file, tidily formatted and showing all amounts explicitly. The output of print is always a valid hledger journal, but it does always not preserve all original content exactly (eg directives).
hledger's print command also shows all unit prices in effect, or (with -B/--cost) shows cost amounts.
The print command also supports output destination and CSV output.
register
Show postings and their running total. Alias: reg.
--cumulative
: show running total from report start date (default)
-H --historical
: show historical running total/balance (includes postings before
report start date)
-A --average
: show running average of posting amounts instead of total
(implies --empty)
-r --related
: show postings' siblings instead
-w N --width=N
: set output width (default: terminal width or COLUMNS. -wN,M sets
description width as well)
-O FMT --output-format=FMT
: select the output format. Supported formats: txt, csv.
-o FILE --output-file=FILE
: write output to FILE. A file extension matching one of the above
formats selects that format.
The register command displays postings, one per line, and their running total. This is typically used with a query selecting a particular account, to see that account's activity:
$ hledger register checking
2008/01/01 income assets:bank:checking $1 $1
2008/06/01 gift assets:bank:checking $1 $2
2008/06/02 save assets:bank:checking $-1 $1
2008/12/31 pay off assets:bank:checking $-1 0
The --historical
/-H
flag adds the balance from any undisplayed prior
postings to the running total. This is useful when you want to see only
recent activity, with a historically accurate running balance:
$ hledger register checking -b 2008/6 --historical
2008/06/01 gift assets:bank:checking $1 $2
2008/06/02 save assets:bank:checking $-1 $1
2008/12/31 pay off assets:bank:checking $-1 0
The --depth
option limits the amount of sub-account detail displayed.
The --average
/-A
flag shows the running average posting amount
instead of the running total (so, the final number displayed is the
average for the whole report period). This flag implies --empty
(see
below). It is affected by --historical
. It works best when showing
just one account and one commodity.
The --related
/-r
flag shows the other postings in the transactions
of the postings which would normally be shown.
With a reporting interval, register shows summary postings, one per interval, aggregating the postings to each account:
$ hledger register --monthly income
2008/01 income:salary $-1 $-1
2008/06 income:gifts $-1 $-2
Periods with no activity, and summary postings with a zero amount, are
not shown by default; use the --empty
/-E
flag to see them:
$ hledger register --monthly income -E
2008/01 income:salary $-1 $-1
2008/02 0 $-1
2008/03 0 $-1
2008/04 0 $-1
2008/05 0 $-1
2008/06 income:gifts $-1 $-2
2008/07 0 $-2
2008/08 0 $-2
2008/09 0 $-2
2008/10 0 $-2
2008/11 0 $-2
2008/12 0 $-2
Often, you'll want to see just one line per interval. The --depth
option helps with this, causing subaccounts to be aggregated:
$ hledger register --monthly assets --depth 1h
2008/01 assets $1 $1
2008/06 assets $-1 0
2008/12 assets $-1 $-1
Note when using report intervals, if you specify start/end dates these will be adjusted outward if necessary to contain a whole number of intervals. This ensures that the first and last intervals are full length and comparable to the others in the report.
Custom register output
register uses the full terminal width by default, except on windows. You
can override this by setting the COLUMNS
environment variable (not a
bash shell variable) or by using the --width
/-w
option.
The description and account columns normally share the space equally
(about half of (width - 40) each). You can adjust this by adding a
description width as part of --width's argument, comma-separated:
--width W,D
. Here's a diagram:
<--------------------------------- width (W) ---------------------------------->
date (10) description (D) account (W-41-D) amount (12) balance (12)
DDDDDDDDDD dddddddddddddddddddd aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa AAAAAAAAAAAA AAAAAAAAAAAA
and some examples:
$ hledger reg # use terminal width (or 80 on windows)
$ hledger reg -w 100 # use width 100
$ COLUMNS=100 hledger reg # set with one-time environment variable
$ export COLUMNS=100; hledger reg # set till session end (or window resize)
$ hledger reg -w 100,40 # set overall width 100, description width 40
$ hledger reg -w $COLUMNS,40 # use terminal width, and set description width
The register command also supports the -o/--output-file
and
-O/--output-format
options for controlling output
destination and CSV output.
stats
Show some journal statistics.
-o FILE --output-file=FILE
: write output to FILE. A file extension matching one of the above
formats selects that format.
$ hledger stats
Main journal file : /src/hledger/data/sample.journal
Included journal files :
Transactions span : 2008-01-01 to 2009-01-01 (366 days)
Last transaction : 2008-12-31 (2333 days ago)
Transactions : 5 (0.0 per day)
Transactions last 30 days: 0 (0.0 per day)
Transactions last 7 days : 0 (0.0 per day)
Payees/descriptions : 5
Accounts : 8 (depth 3)
Commodities : 1 ($)
The stats command displays summary information for the whole journal, or a matched part of it. With a reporting interval, it shows a report for each report period.
The stats command also supports -o/--output-file
for controlling
output destination.
test
Run built-in unit tests.
$ hledger test
Cases: 74 Tried: 74 Errors: 0 Failures: 0
This command runs hledger's built-in unit tests and displays a quick report. With a regular expression argument, it selects only tests with matching names. It's mainly used in development, but it's also nice to be able to check your hledger executable for smoke at any time.
ADD-ON COMMANDS
Add-on commands are executables in your PATH whose name starts with
hledger-
and ends with any of these file extensions: none,
.hs
,.lhs
,.pl
,.py
,.rb
,.rkt
,.sh
,.bat
,.com
,.exe
. Also,
an add-on's name may not be the same as any built-in command or alias.
hledger will detect these and include them in the command list and let
you invoke them with hledger ADDONCMD
. However there are some
limitations:
- Options appearing before ADDONCMD will be visible only to hledger
and will not be passed to the add-on. Eg:
hledger -h web
shows hledger's usage,hledger web -h
shows hledger-web's usage. - Options understood only by the add-on must go after a
--
argument to hide them from hledger, which would otherwise reject them. Eg:hledger web -- --server
.
Sometimes it may be more convenient to just run the add-on directly, eg:
hledger-web --server
.
Add-ons which are written in haskell can take advantage of the hledger-lib library for journal parsing, reporting, command-line options, etc.
Here are some hledger add-ons available from Hackage, the extra directory in the hledger source, or elsewhere:
api
Web API server, see hledger-api.
autosync
Download OFX bank data and/or convert OFX to hledger journal format.
$ hledger autosync --help
usage: hledger-autosync [-h] [-m MAX] [-r] [-a ACCOUNT] [-l LEDGER] [-i INDENT]
[--initial] [--fid FID] [--assertions] [-d] [--hledger]
[--slow] [--which]
[PATH]
Synchronize ledger.
positional arguments:
PATH do not sync; import from OFX file
optional arguments:
-h, --help show this help message and exit
-m MAX, --max MAX maximum number of days to process
-r, --resync do not stop until max days reached
-a ACCOUNT, --account ACCOUNT
set account name for import
-l LEDGER, --ledger LEDGER
specify ledger file to READ for syncing
-i INDENT, --indent INDENT
number of spaces to use for indentation
--initial create initial balance entries
--fid FID pass in fid value for OFX files that do not supply it
--assertions create balance assertion entries
-d, --debug enable debug logging
--hledger force use of hledger (on by default if invoked as hledger-
autosync)
--slow use slow, but possibly more robust, method of calling ledger
(no subprocess)
--which display which version of ledger/hledger/ledger-python will
be used by ledger-autosync to check for previous
transactions
$ head acct1.ofx
OFXHEADER:100
DATA:OFXSGML
VERSION:102
SECURITY:NONE
ENCODING:USASCII
CHARSET:1252
COMPRESSION:NONE
OLDFILEUID:NONE
NEWFILEUIDe:8509488b59d1bb45
$ hledger autosync acct1.ofx
2013/08/30 MONTHLY SERVICE FEE
; ofxid: 3000.4303001832.201308301
WF:4303001832 -$6.00
[assets:business:bank:wf:bchecking:banking] $6.00
ledger-autosync,
which includes a hledger-autosync
alias, downloads transactions from
your bank(s) via OFX, and prints just the new ones as journal entries
which you can add to your journal. It can also operate on .OFX files
which you've downloaded manually. It can be a nice alternative to
hledger's built-in CSV reader, especially if your bank supports OFX
download.
diff
Show transactions present in one journal file but not another
$ hledger diff --help
Usage: hledger-diff account:name left.journal right.journal
$ cat a.journal
1/1
(acct:one) 1
$ cat b.journal
1/1
(acct:one) 1
2/2
(acct:two) 2
$ hledger diff acct:two a.journal b.journal
Unmatched transactions in the first journal:
Unmatched transactions in the second journal:
2015/02/02
(acct:two) $2
hledger-diff compares two journal files. Given an account name, it prints out the transactions affecting that account which are in one journal file but not in the other. This can be useful for reconciling existing journals with bank statements.
equity
Print a journal entry that resets account balances to zero.
$ hledger balance --flat -E assets liabilities
0 assets:bank:checking
$1 assets:bank:saving
$-2 assets:cash
$1 liabilities:debts
--------------------
0
$ hledger equity assets liabilities
2015/05/23
assets:bank:saving $-1
assets:cash $2
liabilities:debts $-1
equity:closing balances 0
2015/05/23
assets:bank:saving $1
assets:cash $-2
liabilities:debts $1
equity:opening balances 0
This prints a journal entry which zeroes out the specified accounts (or all accounts) with a transfer to/from "equity:closing balances" (like Ledger's equity command). Also, it prints an similar entry with opposite sign for restoring the balances from "equity:opening balances".
These can be useful for ending one journal file and starting a new one, respectively. By zeroing your asset and liability accounts at the end of a file and restoring them at the start of the next one, you will see correct asset/liability balances whether you run hledger on just one file, or on several files concatenated with include.
interest
Generate interest transactions.
$ hledger interest --help
Usage: hledger-interest [OPTION...] ACCOUNT
-h --help print this message and exit
-V --version show version number and exit
-v --verbose echo input ledger to stdout (default)
-q --quiet don't echo input ledger to stdout
--today compute interest up until today
-f FILE --file=FILE input ledger file (pass '-' for stdin)
-s ACCOUNT --source=ACCOUNT interest source account
-t ACCOUNT --target=ACCOUNT interest target account
--act use 'act' day counting convention
--30-360 use '30/360' day counting convention
--30E-360 use '30E/360' day counting convention
--30E-360isda use '30E/360isda' day counting convention
--constant=RATE constant interest rate
--annual=RATE annual interest rate
--bgb288 compute interest according to German BGB288
--ing-diba compute interest according for Ing-Diba Tagesgeld account
$ cat interest.journal
2008/09/26 Loan
Assets:Bank EUR 10000.00
Liabilities:Bank
2008/11/27 Payment
Assets:Bank EUR -3771.12
Liabilities:Bank
2009/05/03 Payment
Assets:Bank EUR -1200.00
Liabilities:Bank
2010/12/10 Payment
Assets:Bank EUR -3700.00
Liabilities:Bank
$ hledger interest -- -f interest.journal --source=Expenses:Interest \
--target=Liabilities:Bank --30-360 --annual=0.05 Liabilities:Bank
2008/09/26 Loan
Assets:Bank EUR 10000.00
Liabilities:Bank EUR -10000.00
2008/11/27 0.05% interest for EUR -10000.00 over 61 days
Liabilities:Bank EUR -84.72
Expenses:Interest EUR 84.72
2008/11/27 Payment
Assets:Bank EUR -3771.12
Liabilities:Bank EUR 3771.12
2008/12/31 0.05% interest for EUR -6313.60 over 34 days
Liabilities:Bank EUR -29.81
Expenses:Interest EUR 29.81
2009/05/03 0.05% interest for EUR -6343.42 over 123 days
Liabilities:Bank EUR -108.37
Expenses:Interest EUR 108.37
2009/05/03 Payment
Assets:Bank EUR -1200.00
Liabilities:Bank EUR 1200.00
2009/12/31 0.05% interest for EUR -5251.78 over 238 days
Liabilities:Bank EUR -173.60
Expenses:Interest EUR 173.60
2010/12/10 0.05% interest for EUR -5425.38 over 340 days
Liabilities:Bank EUR -256.20
Expenses:Interest EUR 256.20
2010/12/10 Payment
Assets:Bank EUR -3700.00
Liabilities:Bank EUR 3700.00
hledger-interest computes interests for a given account. Using command line flags, the program can be configured to use various schemes for day-counting, such as act/act, 30/360, 30E/360, and 30/360isda. Furthermore, it supports a (small) number of interest schemes, i.e. annual interest with a fixed rate and the scheme mandated by the German BGB288 (Basiszins für Verbrauchergeschäfte). See the package page for more.
irr
Calculate internal rate of return.
$ hledger irr --help
Usage: hledger-irr [OPTION...]
-h --help print this message and exit
-V --version show version number and exit
-c --cashflow also show all revant transactions
-f FILE --file=FILE input ledger file (pass '-' for stdin)
-i ACCOUNT --investment-account=ACCOUNT investment account
-t ACCOUNT --interest-account=ACCOUNT interest/gain/fees/losses account
-b DATE --begin=DATE calculate interest from this date
-e DATE --end=DATE calculate interest until this date
-D --daily calculate interest for each day
-W --weekly calculate interest for each week
-M --monthly calculate interest for each month
-Y --yearly calculate interest for each year
$ cat irr.journal
2011-01-01 Some wild speculation – I wonder if it pays off
Speculation €100.00
Cash
2011-02-01 More speculation (and adjustment of value)
Cash -€10.00
Rate Gain -€1.00
Speculation
2011-03-01 Lets pull out some money (and adjustment of value)
Cash €30.00
Rate Gain -€3.00
Speculation
2011-04-01 More speculation (and it lost some money!)
Cash -€50.00
Rate Gain € 5.00
Speculation
2011-05-01 Getting some money out (and adjustment of value)
Speculation -€44.00
Rate Gain -€ 3.00
Cash
2011-06-01 Emptying the account (after adjusting the value)
Speculation -€85.00
Cash €90.00
Rate Gain -€ 5.00
$ hledger-irr -f irr.journal -t "Rate Gain" -i Speculation --monthly
2011/01/01 - 2011/02/01: 12.49%
2011/02/01 - 2011/03/01: 41.55%
2011/03/01 - 2011/04/01: -51.44%
2011/04/01 - 2011/05/01: 32.24%
2011/05/01 - 2011/06/01: 95.92%
hledger-irr computes the internal rate of return, also known as the effective interest rate, of a given investment. After specifying what account holds the investment, and what account stores the gains (or losses, or fees, or cost), it calculates the hypothetical annual rate of fixed rate investment that would have provided the exact same cash flow. See the package page for more.
print-unique
Print only only journal entries which have a unique description.
$ cat unique.journal
1/1 test
(acct:one) 1
2/2 test
(acct:two) 2
$ LEDGER_FILE=unique.journal hledger print-unique
(-f option not supported)
2015/01/01 test
(acct:one) 1
rewrite
Prints all journal entries, adding specified custom postings to matched entries.
hledger-rewrite.hs, in hledger's extra directory (compilation optional), adds postings to existing transactions, optionally with an amount based on the existing transaction's first amount. See the script for more details.
$ hledger rewrite -- [QUERY] --add-posting "ACCT AMTEXPR" ...
$ hledger rewrite -- ^income --add-posting '(liabilities:tax) *.33'
$ hledger rewrite -- expenses:gifts --add-posting '(budget:gifts) *-1"'
ui
Curses-style interface, see hledger-ui.
web
Web interface, see hledger-web.
TROUBLESHOOTING
Run-time problems
Here are some issues you might encounter when you run hledger (and remember you can also seek help from the IRC channel, mail list or bug tracker):
Successfully installed, but "No command 'hledger' found"
stack and cabal install binaries into a special directory, which should
be added to your PATH environment variable. Eg on unix-like systems,
that is ~/.local/bin and ~/.cabal/bin respectively.
I set a custom LEDGER_FILE, but hledger is still using the default
file
LEDGER_FILE
should be a real environment variable, not just a shell
variable. The command env | grep LEDGER_FILE
should show it. You may
need to use export
. Here's an
explanation.
"Illegal byte sequence" or "Invalid or incomplete multibyte or wide
character" errors
In order to handle non-ascii letters and symbols (like £), hledger needs
an appropriate locale. This is usually configured system-wide; you can
also configure it temporarily. The locale may need to be one that
supports UTF-8, if you built hledger with GHC < 7.2 (or possibly
always, I'm not sure yet).
Here's an example of setting the locale temporarily, on ubuntu gnu/linux:
$ file my.journal
my.journal: UTF-8 Unicode text # <- the file is UTF8-encoded
$ locale -a
C
en_US.utf8 # <- a UTF8-aware locale is available
POSIX
$ LANG=en_US.utf8 hledger -f my.journal print # <- use it for this command
Here's one way to set it permanently, there are probably better ways:
$ echo "export LANG=en_US.UTF-8" >>~/.bash_profile
$ bash --login
If we preferred to use eg fr_FR.utf8
, we might have to install that
first:
$ apt-get install language-pack-fr
$ locale -a
C
en_US.utf8
fr_BE.utf8
fr_CA.utf8
fr_CH.utf8
fr_FR.utf8
fr_LU.utf8
POSIX
$ LANG=fr_FR.utf8 hledger -f my.journal print
Note some platforms allow variant locale spellings, but not all (ubuntu
accepts fr_FR.UTF8
, mac osx requires exactly fr_FR.UTF-8
).
Known limitations
Command line interface
Add-on command options, unless they are also understood by the main
hledger executable, must be written after --
, like this:
hledger web -- --server
Differences from Ledger
Not all of Ledger's journal file syntax is supported. See file format differences.
hledger is slower than Ledger, and uses more memory, on large data files.
Windows limitations
In a windows CMD window, non-ascii characters and colours are not supported.
In a windows Cygwin/MSYS/Mintty window, the tab key is not supported in hledger add.
ENVIRONMENT
COLUMNS The screen width used by the register command. Default: the full terminal width.
LEDGER_FILE The journal file path when not specified with -f
.
Default: ~/.hledger.journal
(on windows, perhaps
C:/Users/USER/.hledger.journal
).
FILES
Reads data from one or more files in hledger journal, timeclock,
timedot, or CSV format specified with -f
, or $LEDGER_FILE
, or
$HOME/.hledger.journal
(on windows, perhaps
C:/Users/USER/.hledger.journal
).
BUGS
The need to precede options with --
when invoked from hledger is
awkward.
hledger can't render non-ascii characters when run from a Windows command prompt (up to Windows 7 at least).
When input data contains non-ascii characters, a suitable system locale must be configured (or there will be an unhelpful error). Eg on POSIX, set LANG to something other than C.